Changing the Approach to Agronomy

“It almost revolutionizes how we approach agronomy. Now, we can really see what's going on under the ground and with the plants. It changes how we approach it.”

Tyler Kessler has worked with South Country and Crop Intelligence for the past four years. He is an agrologist with his own small agronomy consulting business, Kessler Ag Ventures.

“Since we started looking at Crop Intelligence and understanding really how it works, the number one thing is knowing what's in your soil and the predictive model on where water driven yield potential can be—even before we seed,” says Kessler.

Now, all of his decisions for his clients are made based on water.

Kessler recalls how in 2018 they hadn’t received any precipitation until May 29th. That’s when they got about four inches of rain and their yield potential went from average to plus 20 to 25 bushels per acre across the board.

From Crop Intelligence data, Kessler was able to make the decision to top dress his client’s crops, which now had incredible potential.

Tyler Kessler - Kessler Ag Ventures

“We pulled that trigger and top dressed most of the canola and most of the durum—and we attained higher than average yields. Higher than what we'd planned for. With their durum, we not only had high yield, but we also maintained their protein,” added Kessler.

“If we hadn't gone in and top dressed, there's no way we would have maintained those yields with that protein level.”

Kessler plans to continue to use Crop Intelligence to make sound agronomic decisions based on moisture for his clients.

“I can help my clients limit their risk and exposure based on the information we're getting from Crop Intelligence. So, we can apply fertilizer at the right time, in the right place and the right rate.”